Oxford Council OKs new sidewalk ordinance

OXFORD — How visitors and residents drive, park and walk in the borough is changing.

Council unanimously voted Monday to require everyone who does not have a sidewalk to install one when a property is sold or upon request from the borough.

A similar ordinance has been on the books, but enforcement has been spotty, and even now there are provisions for waiving the ordinance if physical constraints on the property make sidewalks impractical.

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This time council appears to mean business with the sidewalk requirement. As soon as the ordinance takes effect, five days after the meeting, notice will go out to property owners along North Third Street, from Wheeler Boulevard to the Oxford Square Mall, that they must install sidewalks.

Also Monday, opposition to a change that would have turned Second Street into a one-way thoroughfare in two different directions, depending on where motorists accessed it, led Borough Council to delay acting on an ordinance that would have changed the traffic pattern.

Under the proposed ordinance, the only way to access Second Street would be from Maple Street, with drivers able go either right or left on Second. Currently it is a two-way street.

The change to a split one-way for Second Street was made to reduce traffic on the street. There are potholes and stormwater runoff problems with the street, but to improve it as a two-lane street would be more expensive than to preserve a single lane.

Kevin Collins, who operates the Collins Funeral Home at the intersection of Pine and Maple, sometimes stages vehicles along Second Street. He said out-of-town mourners who are unfamiliar with borough streets could be confused by the limited access to Second Street.

“If you close off either end of that street, people have to drive a mile to get around the block if they miss their turn,” he said.

The issue is being sent back to committee for further consideration, along with the problem of parking for the residents of the Oxford Hotel. There are only two parking spots for the hotel, while six to eight residents there have vehicles. Previously, they were allowed to use the Oxford Presbyterian Church parking lot across the street, but that situation has changed and spots are unavailable in the immediate area.

One idea mentioned at the meeting was to remove the parking meters on Octorara Alley in favor of some sort of permit parking for Oxford Hotel residents. Meanwhile, council is also thinking about changing two of the parking meters in front of the Oxford Post and Trade to 15 minute parking to keep traffic moving.

As budget time nears, council has received a request from the Oxford Public Library for an increase in the per capita contribution the borough makes to the library.

Council also heard a presentation from Buzz Tyson, executive director of the Lighthouse Youth Center, asking them to consider financial support of some kind for the center as it undertakes construction of a new facility.